The Position of Atypical Workers in EU - Essay Example

The EU has significantly contributed to improving the position of atypical workers EU has significantly contributed to improving the position of atypical workers Atypical work is the employment which is distinctive than the standard model of a full time and regular employment. It does not consist of a single full time employer for a long term. A full time employment is in fact a secure, unlimited and regular job unlike that of an atypical work which is for the time being. The number of atypical workers has grown significantly throughout the globe in the last two decades; however, it is still termed as ‘atypical’ work. The overall legal perspective to this issue has given a rise to the debate of distinguishing between typical and atypical work. In these years, there have emerged new forms of work with the changing corporate cultures and requirements of work. These forms include part time work, self employed work, temporary agency work, and others. The number of ‘atypical workers’ has been rising in recent years in the European Union. The broad class of an atypical worker in the EU includes workers on fixed term contracts, construction industry workers, agency workers etc. But unlike a ‘typical’, regular, full-time employee, these atypical workers are guaranteed fewer occupational rights and protection as dictated by the legislation1. This is so because they deviate considerably from the definition of ‘standard’ occupation and regular labour laws seldom apply to them (Broughton, 2010, p.2). But over the past decade, there have been legislations in order to protect the rights of these workers. For example, the Council Directive of December 1997 and June 1999, concerning the framework on part-time and fixed-time work respectively. In the EU, there have been many directions picked to regulate the atypical workers. One of the attempts made was to make sure that the workers and their type of work is not discriminated, thus a new legal concept was regulated which stated that the category of ‘employment’ set under the legal framework, and the subordination criteria not to be used as an instrument to discriminate between the workers of the organization. However, in 2005, the Commission’s Communication on the Social Agenda proposed the Green Paper which was to analyse the work patterns and the position of the labour law to enhance the development of the trends of work. The Green Paper was ‘Modernizing labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century’ and it was presented in 2006. It subjected to the increase of the atypical contracts with the strong integration of women and older workers represented too2. Another direction taken by the EU on the regulation of the atypical workers has been on the working time issue. The time schedules become an issue especially when talking about the atypical workers. Thus the EU suggests that the different timings of the workers should not be a factor on which the labour standards are decided. The working timing of a worker, whether regular or part time, should not affect their standards of work, conditions of work or security at work. However, this concept does not say that all the workers can benefit from the same labour needs as it also depends on the needs. The different work timing may mean that the workers have different needs of working and thus, there can be an application of different standards. Despite these legislations, the uncertainty surrounding job security and provisions of an atypical job remain. In the UK, agency workers are still not considered ‘employees’ by law and so are unable to benefit from Employment Rights Act 19963 . This means that agency workers can be fired at a week’s notice and that too without any redundancy pay. The situation is similar in other European countries. However, things are changing. In Italy, a labour tribunal ordered TIM, a mobile phone company, to reinstate an agency worker at an extended contract after he was fired (Rizzi, 2003, p. 15). Similarly, the EC passed the EU Agency Workers Directive, in December 2008, guaranteeing agency workers an equal pay and conditions relative to permanent employees at the same job. The European Commission has imposed new regulations for discrimination of the atypical workers and this regulation defines the new approach of the principles of equality imposed by the EC. Atypical workers are given the rights to equal treatment regardless of their characteristics such as sex, age, disability, race or religion. Atypical workers are granted equal and proper treatment no matter what their working hours, type of employment or nature of work is4. These concepts were the key features of the Directive in 1997 which imposed the model of equality amongst part time and fixed term workers. The non-discrimination principle was applied to the working environment and conditions for all the workers highlighting the part timers. The Directive 1999 presented a similar model. Furthermore an agreement was signed between the EU social partners who regulated the working conditions, safety, health, collective rights and training of all the employees. Complying with the EU’s directive, the UK government has passed the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 which came into effect in October 2011. The regulations will protect nearly 2 million temporary and agency workers, giving them equal treatment on pay, holidays, working hours and bonuses. But the regulations apply only to those workers who stay at the same job for more than 12 weeks, thus excluding many people. The long term effects of this and similar regulations across Europe are still to be seen and there is still a long way to go before the Directive’s goal is realised. In Europe, the debate about the employment rights being different for standard forms of employment and non-standards forms of employment had been going on for long until the EU directives and laws enforced in several countries of Europe. The employment rights were initially for the standard employments and thus that meant that the non-standard workers did not gain any benefit from them5. This issue gained some progressive development when the EU regulations were introduced and the employment rights of the non-standard employments came close to those of the standards employments. These regulations were powerful and impactful because they were transmitted to the national norms of all the EU Member States and thus, these rights gained more recognition. The best thing about these regulations imposed by the EU was that all the non-standards employment workers could access the same commission to whom the standard employment workers accessed. The employment tribunals and labour courts are set up to ensure that the complaints and claims of all the workers are settled no matter they are normal or atypical workers. Employment rights are given special importance and this is evident by the fact that a phone helpline is accessible in many countries where workers can lodge complaints about their working conditions, breaches of rights and other issues. These measures have strengthened the employment conditions and rights in the European countries6. However, the debate continues as there are still some areas where the atypical workers do not receive any benefit from their individual and collective rights. Dismissal is an example of such an area where equality is still not prevailed. For instance in UK and Ireland, the workers who are in service for a year or more are the only ones who can claim for unfair dismissal, and atypical workers hired for lesser than a year cant. The right does not cover the workers who are working on contracts for lesser than a year, which shows unfairness. This has also affected the contractual agreements made for the atypical workers as they tend to be for a lesser time period than a year. Another debatable issue is that of collective bargaining. There are differences in this area as well. Usually the atypical workers are not seen as the social partners and thus not represented in the social partner organizations. This is valid because the collective bargaining process is based upon the participation of social partners, and since the atypical workers are not considered as social partners, they cannot participate. However, social partner organizations at times represent the atypical workers but in those cases there are specific agreements that are made. For example in Italy there are specific collective bargaining agreements that exist for the atypical workers and are bargained by social partners who are relevant. The short term nature of the atypical work often makes it difficult for the organizations to organise the workforce. It requires frequent changes, updates and labour turnover. The management finds to difficult to recruit new members every time, carry out the process, train the workers and adjust them to the corporate culture of the organization. With the increasing numbers of atypical workers, organizations and existing standard employment workers feel difficult to manage with new workers each time7. Thus, there are some trade unions that have specific groups or branches that deal with the atypical workers. This has been the case in Denmark where there is a trade union which represented the freelancers, and the legal guidance was given by the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark/Private as it provided guidelines for working conditions and terms of freelancers. The case in the UK is that their law distinguishes between the ‘workers’ and ‘employees’. Employees tend to have access to more flexible and strong employment rights than the workers. The atypical workers are considered as not qualifies as employees and thus do not enjoy complete employment benefits. The workers are not given many rights that the employees are guaranteed which means that there is discrimination at a high level8. The only provision to this discrimination is the statutory minimum wages that are applicable to all the employees and workers, and also the legislation regarding the time, health and safety at work. The number and cases for agency workers have also increasingly been in limelight during the past few years. Businesses in the UK consider agency workers as important for their businesses in order to experience a change. However, it is still true that there is an ongoing debate on the protection and pay rates of the agency workers. They tend to have lesser protection, lesser pay rates and fewer employment rights than other standard employees who work in the same business. Agency workers are employees by companies to work for clients on contractual basis. Their rights are often recognized by the status at which they work, such as part time, self-employed or a worker. Agency workers are highlighted more than any other atypical workers in Europe and in the EU because of their greater demand and nature of work. However, their concerns are similar to those of other atypical workers other than the fact that the EU has greatly contributed to their legal position in the organizations and workplaces. Many agency workers suffered unfair treatment in Europe when they were sacked form companies on the basis of not being part of that company and not holding any right to complain or claim9. They did not have employment rights due to the short course of their work. They received no notice for being terminated or made redundant and no redundancy payments were given. The agency workers usually suffered these problems because the agencies stated that they were hired by the agencies but they worked directly for clients. This means that they were not subjected to the employee rights as their work did not directly benefit the company and nor was their day to day work controlled by the agency. However, the EU once again stepped in and gave the agency workers more rights under the European Directive on Temporary Agency Work. This directive was passed in 2998 and it aimed to provide increased benefits, rights and protection to the agency workers. The UK system also applies the directive and the unions implement the proposals as well. The main provision given under the directive is the basic working conditions that are given to the other employees in the same business. These basic working conditions included the work timing, pay, holidays, breaks and others. Thus, it is true that the contribution of EU in improving the position of atypical workers is significant and commendable. References Gatward, A.M. 2010. ‘Give agency workers rights’, The Guardian, London. Broughton, A., Biletta, B. and Kullandar, M. 2010. ‘Flexible forms of work: very atypical contractual arrangements’, Institute for Employment Studies and Eurofound, p1-3 Council Directive 1999/70/EC. 1999. Official Journal L 175, P. 0043 – 0048. Retrieved online form http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0070:EN:HTML Council Directive 97/81/EC. 1998. Official Journal L 014, P. 0009 – 0014. Retrieved online from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31997L0081:EN:HTML Directive 2008/104/EC. 2008. Official Journal L 327, P. 0009 – 0014. Retrieved online from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:327:0009:01:EN:HTML Rizzi, M. 2003. ‘Landmark ruling on reinstatement of temporary agency worker’, Eurofind. Wintour, P. 2010. ‘Agency and temporary workers to get more job security’, The Guardian, London. Wallington, P. 2009. ‘Atypical workers: Can, and should, the Law provide more protection?’ Paper for the Annual Conference of the Industrial Law Society, p1-4. The Agency Workers Regulation. 2010. The National Archives. Retrieved online from http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/93/contents/made Read More